Behold Your Mother

When Jesus saw his mother, and the disciple whom he loved standing near, he said to his mother, “Woman behold, your son!”Then he said to the disciple, “Behold your mother!” (Jn 19:26-27)

The Blessed Virgin Mary, Mother of Jesus Christ, Mother of the Church, spiritual Mother of each one of us, cannot be ignored without doing violence to the Gospels. She is surely at the very heart of salvation history if for no other reason that she is with her Son from beginning to end. To gain an appreciation of just how involved she is in redemption history, meditate on the twenty mysteries of the Rosary. This gives us a good look at her true place in the Gospels.

Although she is surely the Mother of God as the great Church councils have asserted, and she is the Mother of the Church, as Pope Paul VIproclaimed, she is also a personal spiritual Mother to each and every one of us. To enter into the mystery of Mary is to enter into the mystery of Jesus Christ. Her only true desire is to bring Jesus to us and to bring us to Jesus. One of the great secrets of the spiritual life is to enter into a true and personal relationship with Mary our Mother. Once the soul seeks to draw close to Mary great things will begin to happen. She will intercede for us and great strides in the spiritual life will take place if only we follow her, especially in her humility.

Since the very beginning of my priesthood I have emphasized this relationship with Our Lady, and the prayer of her Rosary. It is one of the three pillars of my preaching. “Everything for Jesus through the hands of Mary, His Mother and ours.”

May almighty God bless you and yours: the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit. Amen.